“Maybe he bugged her house?” Camille began looking at the lamps.
The thought made a certain sense but . . . “Wait! Not a bug . . . no . . . what if . . .”
I jumped up and ran to the front door, opening it. The others followed me more slowly. I began to examine the lock. Sure enough, there were runes etched around the deadbolt. And that meant . . .
“Bingo! Julian set a spell to trigger once the door was opened. He kidnapped Shimmer after she had already broken it off with Carter, so it stands to reason nobody else was expected to enter the house until Ralph and Alex came to check on her. She probably told Julian that Ralph had a key, so he set the spell on the lock for when the key was turned and the door opened.” I motioned to Camille. “Take a look—can you tell if that’s what happened?”
She knelt to look at the runes. “Sorcerer’s tongue. I can’t read them but I can tell that opening the door tripped the spell. You’re probably right.”
“So the bottom line is, we have no clue whether Julian knows we’re involved in the matter.” Delilah frowned. “I say we err on the side of caution and assume that he knows Alex has friends helping him. I’d rather go in overprepared rather than ill-equipped.”
I motioned for everyone to follow me outside. Alex locked the door behind him and we headed over by our cars. At the side of my Mustang, I turned to the others.
“It occurred to me there might be an audio element to that spell, so I didn’t want to say any more in or near the house. Here’s the plan: We’ll go with you, but we’re not waiting till tomorrow night. If we do, he’ll be fully ready for us and we’ll be in more danger. We’ll go tonight to see if we can find her. Ralph, you go back to the agency. I hate to be a killjoy but you aren’t prepared for a fight, dude.”
Ralph gave me a cockeyed grin. “Don’t be so sure. I’m a werewolf, and I’m pretty damned strong in my wolf form.”
Alex let out a snort. “Ralph isn’t your typical geek. Maybe blood sends him into a tailspin, but the boy can fight. Let him come. He’s saved my ass more than once.”
I shrugged. Truth was, I’d halfway forgotten Ralph was a Were—he looked so much like a typical chiphead that I’d been thinking of him as an FBH—a full-blooded human.
“Sorry. My bad. So, we head to the park, and the two of you follow our directions. You willing to play this by our rules?”
Alex frowned. “I don’t usually go into situations with anybody but members of my agency. But to be frank, I’m more used to investigations and paranormal showdowns than I am actual fights, though I’ve had plenty of those in my day. So yes, we’ll play by your game. I’m responsible for Shimmer’s welfare. My past put her in danger. I’m not turning up my nose at help.”
“After we stop at your agency to pick up the homing device, we’ll head to the park. I’m pretty sure she’ll be there. They seem to be filtering us in that direction. But chances are they’ll have scouts, so we should park a block or two away and go in on foot. Everybody armed?”
Camille and Delilah nodded. Alex held up his knife. And Ralph surprised the hell out of me when he held up a pair of nun chucks. At my look, he let out a short bark of laughter.
“I was the runt of the Pack. I had to learn to defend myself. I know several forms of martial arts, and I can take down a three-hundred-pound man without blinking. If he bleeds, I might faint. But he’ll be down by the time that happens.” He winked at me, and in that moment, I decided I liked him.
“Okay then, we’re good to go. Everybody in, and you two follow us. Stay behind us. We don’t want them seeing us pulling up to the park gates again.”
And with that, we were off again. After a quick stop at Fly By Night’s building, we were off to Severance Park. The wind was raging now, along with the rain, and we were in for a long wet night of hunting in the dark.
***
Two blocks before we hit the park, I pulled over to the curb. This would give us plenty of leeway, and with the number of abandoned houses, chances are we could cross through backyards without being spotted from the sidewalk. And if some resident did manage to spot us, it would be unlikely they’d call the cops or come out to find out who the hell was passing through. The area didn’t lend itself to sticking one’s neck out.
Alex and Ralph pulled in behind us and Alex hurried up to our side. He held out a small device that was flickering with a pale blue. “She’s within a mile of here. I can’t keep this on longer than three hours, or the Wing Liege will be alerted, so let’s move fast.”
“We figured they were keeping her nearby.”
We were standing on the sidewalk in front of a decrepit house with a FOR SALE sign in the front yard. It looked abandoned, left behind by owners who probably had gone underwater when the housing bubble crashed, and who had long ago fled the yoke of trying to keep up with the mortgage.
I quietly organized us into a line of three groups—first would be Alex and myself. We were both vampires and it would be easier for us to see through the shadows and gloom. Then, Camille next to Ralph. Camille could keep an eye on him, and she still had room to prepare any spells that might be needed. Bringing up the rear was Delilah. She would guard our back.
Speaking in low tones, I whispered for them to follow me as I made my way through the front yard of the house for sale, and led them around back, into the gloom of what turned out to be a horribly overgrown tangle.
There were spiders everywhere and Delilah and Camille swore under their breaths as they pushed through the sticky webs. The wind wasn’t helping, either. It was on a real tear now, and even though it drove the rain against us like a miserable shower of pellets, the fact was that it was also our ally—it covered our sounds except to the most astute of ears.
The backyard was fenced, but it didn’t take much for me to scale and peek over into the next yard. The house had lights on inside, but the yard itself was shrouded in shadow and gloom, and I sensed nothing to raise an alarm. I leaned back down before dropping over the other side.
“Alex, help Camille, would you?” And then, I slipped up and over, landing on the grass below the rotting posts.
“Here you go, love. Upsy-daisy,” Alex cheerfully whispered from behind the wooden structure.
A moment later, Camille stared down uneasily from the top of the fence. She said nothing, but the look on her face told me she wasn’t having all that much fun. Alex leaped up beside her, balancing her as she scrambled to swing first one leg over, then the other. He dropped down and helped her lower herself to the ground.
I motioned for her to hightail it into the shadows. Ralph followed, managing it on his own, then Delilah came last, easily clearing the fence. Once we were all together, we re-formed our line, and skirted the yard, sticking to the shadows. Another fence waited on the other side, and once again, I scaled it first, to garner a look at what lay below.
Aha! The other side of this fence led to a lot filled with brambles. The land was piled high with them, and I couldn’t make out any path around them. We’d have to figure that out once we were over the side. No house was visible, unless there might be one hidden beneath the tangle, but chances were, the blackberries had just taken over the lot and now ruled it completely.
I motioned to the others, and then to the other side of the fence, and Alex nodded, waving for Camille to come up to the front. As soon as I dropped to the ground, I cleared out a space as best as I could, pushing the thorny bushes back as much as possible.
As before, Alex helped Camille over the fence, but this time I guided her down, trying to keep her from stumbling into the berry bushes. We went through the same game with Ralph, and then Delilah. Lastly, Alex swung himself over, easily landing on his feet.
“How the hell are we supposed to get through here without tearing ourselves to ribbons?” Camille glanced over the wild tangle. “Did every blackberry runner in the county decide this was the place to hang
out?”
“Sure looks that way.” Delilah frowned.
“Make way, let me take the lead.” Alex nodded for us to shuffle around and give him the front. “I have been on enough safaris and jungle trips over the years that I should be able to find the path, if there is one. And if there isn’t, my trusty Juanita here will do the trick.” He held up his blade. “She can blaze the way. Juanita is razor sharp and I’ve skinned . . . well, I’ve skinned more than enough tough-hided critters with her before.”
I moved back and let Alex go ahead of me. He poked around for a few minutes, then jerked his head to the left, motioning for us to follow. As we made our way through a path so narrow I doubt if I would have noticed it, he hacked away at the tendrils crossing the trail. The going was slow, so slow that I began to wonder if we maybe should just head to the sidewalk out front, but one look in that direction put a stop to that thought. We’d have to retrace our steps in order to do so, because the path to the sidewalk and road was blocked from here.
As we worked our way into the depths of the brambles, the storm had intensified to where we were grateful for the brambles’ protection. The lot was actually two lots in one, so they covered a vast area, and now I remembered that the land ended at the street corner. Once we reached the end, we’d cross the street and be at the edge of the park. From there, we’d have to find an entrance, or crawl over the fence, but we’d be in and able to search for clues as to where Julian was stowing Shimmer.
Alex suddenly stopped. He turned, his face pale in the flashes of lightning that had begun to flare across the sky. “Problem straight ahead. Come up here.”
I slid past a couple suckers that snagged at my jacket, brushing them to the side the best I could. The brambles opened out into a clearing in the center of the land they covered. And there, in the middle of the clearing, lay two women, covered in blood.
“Fuck, fuck, and more fuck.” I pushed ahead, glancing around. There were no signs of anybody else here, but I could smell the blood. It was new, relatively fresh. As I listened, trying to home in on any sounds coming from the prone women, the wind rattled the branches, making it impossible to hear anything.
I hurried to their side, motioning for the others to stay at the edge of the clearing. If there was anybody here we didn’t want to meet, better only one of us be vulnerable. But no one emerged from the thickets—nothing disturbed the murk and gloom that surrounded the area.
Kneeling down, I felt for a pulse but one look told me I wouldn’t find any. Puncture wounds ripped their throats—someone had fed on them, and fed savagely. And . . . oh hell. Blood stained their lips. They had drunk before they died. Which meant . . .
“We’ve got two newly minted vamps here,” I called over to Alex and the others. “Get over here now.”
When a vamp was newly minted, as we called new sirelings in the Vampire Nation, the body would take anywhere between thirty minutes to two days to rise. The time it took depended on the age of the sire, their strength, and the bloodline through which they were sired. So if these women had truly been forced to drink before they died, then anywhere between now and a couple days should see them rise.
Alex joined me. “Should we stake them? Help them rise and become productive members of society?”
His sarcasm wasn’t lost on me, but I ignored it. “I don’t think they’re going to be all too friendly if they’re sired by the same batch that Roman’s guards had to put—Watch out!”
Even as I spoke, one of the women launched herself into a sitting position. Instead of looking confused and dazed, like most new vamps, her eyes were blood red and she looked hungry. She was into a crouching position before I could step back, as her friend woke up, too.
“We’ve got trouble, get back!” I called to the others.
“Fuck a duck,” Alex muttered under his breath, then quickly added, “’Scuse the language, ladies.” He pulled out his knife. “Juanita here is going to have to stand in for a stake.”
“I don’t have any such luxury.” I launched myself at the crouching vamp and she met me chest-on. As I grappled the woman, she tried to bite me and I could feel the hunger roiling off her in a wave of anger and fury. She was fully in the grasp of her predator and there would be no reasoning with her. The same with her friend. As we went down, with me on top of her, she scrabbled at me, her nails already sharp and hard.
Vamps’ nails changed when they died—one of the few things that did—and grew long and hard. My own never broke or took damage, and like the rest of me, if something smashed my hand bad enough to actually hurt the nail, it would eventually grow back along with my hand healing up. Our hair would not regrow. Our talons—definitely.
I growled, grabbing her by the hair. She screeched, like a Bean Sidhe, her howl muffled by the brambles and the wind, her face a mask of feral hunger. My own predator kicked in and I tightened my grasp on her long locks. She had been a beautiful woman when alive—that I could tell, but now she was a fury of teeth and nails, her fangs extending as her cravings grew stronger. I knew what she was feeling because I remembered my own awakening—Dredge had set me to race home and destroy my family.
And I had, until Camille tricked me into the safe room and locked me in until help could arrive. I’d broken her arm. Luckily, that’s all the damage she took from me. But I could still remember the insatiable hunger, the thirst that burned my throat till I had to have blood.
Now, I could see the same thirst, the same frantic need, in this woman’s eyes. For a moment, I felt sorry for her. My guess? She hadn’t asked for this. She was a toy in someone’s demented game. But there was no going back, and now she might as well be a rabid dog. I didn’t have time to gain control over her, and even if I could, there was a chance she’d never snap out of it. And so, even as she came at me again, I yanked her neck, hard, breaking it. As she floundered, Alex dove in with his knife, skewering her in the heart.
She stiffened, her eyes wide with surprise, and the next moment, vanished into a puff of dust—ashes caught up in the wind. She was gone, forever this time.
A shout made me turn. Ralph had moved in on the other vampire, and he and Delilah were holding her down, though it was taking all their efforts from what I could tell. Camille had broken a briar branch off and now she stabbed it hard, bringing it down on the woman’s chest. The lignified vine hit, and Camille pushed hard as the vine penetrated the woman’s heart. With a shout, my sister fell on the vine, throwing all her weight on it, and it pierced through. Seconds later, the vampire vanished into dust, too, joining her companion.
Alex offered me his hand and I took it, happy to have the help. I didn’t need it, but after everything we’d already been through this evening, the offer was comforting.
“Well, that was unexpected. And unwelcome. It seems Julian and his friends are having a field day siring vamps. We have to put a stop to him. Now, let’s get through this bramble patch and over to the park.” I motioned for Alex to take the lead again.
“Look,” he said, holding out the small handheld beacon. The light was glowing steadily. “She’s not that far away. Let’s get a move on.”
This time, he was able to find a small trail that led into the other side of the brambles. Most likely the local teens had forged a path into the clearing from the street. And now, they were using it as a make-out spot. Whatever the case, it stood us in good stead and we were able to make better time. Another ten minutes and we were out the other side.
Severance Park was across the street, and a row of dim streetlamps cast shadows on the trees whipping in the wind. I turned back to glance at Camille, Delilah, and Ralph, all of whom looked miserable, wet, and cold. Alex and I could handle the downpour without a problem, but they looked like drenched kittens.
“You guys still good?”
Camille answered for the group. “We’ve been through worse. Remember, I played mermaid in the ocean of a god’s min
d.” She forced a smile through the drenching rain. Delilah and Ralph nodded their agreement.
“Let’s go.” Ralph didn’t even bother trying to clear his glasses, just squinted behind them.
And so, we crossed the street. There was no traffic, but the less time we were in plain view, the better.
The park was surrounded by a tall steel fence, but we lucked out—there were entrances on all four sides. Or at least, two of them that we knew of. We wouldn’t have to scale the barrier after all. And being a city park, it was open all night rather than closing at dusk like the state parks.
We slipped through the entrance, to find ourselves on an overgrown path. City maintenance was underfunded, but this was ridiculous. Maybe they had trouble getting their crews to work here, for all I knew. Whatever the case, the park had been let go and was a tangle of vegetation.
The trees—what deciduous ones there were—stood barren, their limbs stripped of leaves by the wind and the rain. They had that ooo-spooky autumn look, and their branches thrust into the night sky, like silhouettes of giant spider legs. The ground was slick with detritus and debris. Mostly, moss that was overtaking the sidewalks and cast-off leaves and fir needles that had dropped.
Unsure where to start, I glanced back at Alex for his thoughts.
He frowned. “They were going to contact me with directions tomorrow night. If you were a rogue vampire sorcerer, holing up in a park, where would you hide?” He cast his glance from side to side.
Ralph, who was tapping away on his iPhone, pushed forward. “I know where we should start looking.”
Startled, I turned to him. “Where?”
“Julian mentioned a shelter in his e-mail to her. Well, there’s a mausoleum in the park, near the center. It’s empty now, and overgrown, but this used to be a private estate before the Severance family willed it to the city. There were seven members of their family interred there at one time.”
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